On July 22, 2024, Shanghai Escugen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ("Escugen") and Foreseen Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. ("Foreseen") jointly announced that the First-in-Class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC, FS001/ESG408), which was previously co-developed by both parties, has been licensed to Ipsen Pharma SAS ("Ipsen") of France. Foreseen, as the contracting representative, signed the agreement with Ipsen on July 11, 2024, granting Ipsen global exclusive rights to develop, produce, and commercialize the ADC.
Escugen and Foreseen signed a cooperation agreement as early as November 2023. Based on the innovative tumor-associated antigens and optimized antibodies discovered by Foreseen's proprietary proteomics identification platform, and leveraging Escugen's unique innovative ADC linker-payload platform technology (EZWi-Fit®) and ADC process development and preclinical research capabilities, the two companies jointly developed a First-in-Class ADC.
The successful licensing of the FS001/ESG408 pipeline to Ipsen is the result of a strong collaboration between Escugen and Foreseen, combining their respective strengths. This marks the first time that a First-in-Class ADC developed by Chinese biotechnology companies has been highly recognized by international peers. According to the licensing agreement, based on successful development and regulatory approval, the two parties are expected to share up to $1.03 billion in funds, including upfront payments, R&D, regulatory, and commercialization milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on global sales after commercialization.
About Escugen Biotechnology
Escugen is a clinical-stage biotechnology company located in Shanghai, China, focusing on the development of innovative ADC drugs. Currently, Escugen's lead Trop-2 ADC pipeline, ESG401, has entered Phase III clinical trials. Escugen's next-generation linker-payload technology platform, EZWi-Fit®, offers significant competitive advantages in terms of safety, efficacy, anti-multiple drug resistance, and pharmacokinetic characteristics. Leveraging this platform technology, Escugen is rapidly expanding its ADC pipeline targeting new or validated targets. Escugen has also successfully licensed this platform technology to several domestic and international biotechnology companies to empower their innovative ADC projects.
About Foreseen Technology
Foreseen is an emerging biotechnology company that has pioneered a method for accelerating the discovery of new therapeutic and diagnostic targets through its high-throughput integrated translational proteomics platform based on an artificial intelligence data analysis system. These targets are of significant clinical importance. Foreseen is building a pipeline of novel product candidates for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, and neurological disorders. Foreseen was incubated by Nest.Bio.
